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Heft A Novel Liz Moore Books

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Heft A Novel Liz Moore Books

I was honestly really, really angry when I finished this book. Partly because it is so well-written and the characters are so compelling - so a great deal of credit goes to the author for that. The thing is, this book doesn't feel like a book. It feels like half a book. The end ought to have been the middle of a much longer story. At the very least it should have been the climactic scene before a denouement. A week after finishing, I still feel like I've just reached the middle of a really great book and can't wait to get back to see what happens. Except that there's no more. Which is incredibly frustrating. It was especially frustrating because I was reading it on Kindle, and it showed that I was at 96% complete. I thought I had at least another chapter to go. Climactic scene opens, tap the page to turn, and-- giant reader's guide. I went back and forth several times, just to make sure I hadn't somehow skipped over it. But no. That's it.

I'm totally cool with literary stuff that doesn't necessarily follow a typical plot arc, but there were two point-of-view characters in this book, and it was obvious from the get-go that they were both on trajectories to meet and help one another find closure. Except that the book ends literally the moment before they meet. This is probably supposed to be making some sort of statement about how they're now ready to move on or whatever, but... yeah, it totally did not work for me.


Tags : Amazon.com: Heft: A Novel (9780393081503): Liz Moore: Books,Liz Moore,Heft: A Novel,W. W. Norton & Company,0393081508,Domestic fiction,Friendship,Life change events,Life change events;Fiction.,New York (State),Overweight men,Overweight men;Fiction.,Self-realization,Self-realization;Fiction.,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Literary,Family Life,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Literary,FictionFamily Life - General,GENERAL,General Adult,Literary,Literature & literary studies,New York,United States

Heft A Novel Liz Moore Books Reviews

How do people with tragic circumstances learn to cope? That wasn’t how I would initially describe this book, but that’s how I would after reading. A boy loses his mother; an obese man thinks he’s found love, but it’s snatched away. The two find resolution, and forgiveness, and courage to live. These are two extremely interesting and deep characters. At moments, I cried, while at other moments I celebrated their victories. It’s a beautiful story and the characters seem very real. Excellent book. I’ll definitely read more of this author’s work.
I don't know what it was that first drew my attention to this book, but whatever it was I'm grateful to it. This is PRECISELY the kind of book I adore - no gimmicks, no mad, zany plot twists, no forced humour, no evil sociopaths, no vampires. It is a simple, straightforwardly written story about the morbidly obese Arthur and the abandoned, rudderless Kel, about the things that happen to them and about how they each, rightly or wrongly, choose to deal with the cards they are dealt. Heft depicts sadness, self-destruction, loneliness, disappointment. But then there's hope, courage, resilience. No, things don't always work out and, no, there's not much of a plot, yet I found this book unputdownable. This is poignant, thoughtful story-telling by a classy writer. I wish her well and look forward to more of her work.
Brief summary and review, no spoilers.

This story is told in alternating narratives. One of the narrators is Arthur Op, a morbidly obese 58 year old former professor. Arthur has turned to food for comfort, as his mother once did. He lives by himself in his childhood home and as we read further along we find out about his history and the reason for his alienation and sadness. One of the things we know about Arthur from early on is that he once loved a young woman named Charlene Turner, who had been once been a student of his at the college where he was a professor. They stopped seeing each other (which is explained later on) but since then they have been writing each other letters. Arthur has been lying to Charlene in his letters - making it sound like he has a normal life and a relationship with his family when no such thing exists. He is afraid to tell her the truth.

The other narrator is Kel Turner, a high school kid who's mother is usually drunk or sick. She had been diagnosed with lupus when she was younger, but Kel isn't sure if that's just an excuse for her isolating herself and turning to alcohol. She loves her son very much, and Kel loves her, but he suffers from knowing that his father left him and his mother when he was just a little boy. Kel fantasizes what life would have been like if he had stayed. Kel's mother really wants him to go to college and had arranged for him to go to a high school in a good area - but Kel feels out of place because most of the other kids there are wealthy and privileged, and he keeps his personal life a secret.

Both Arthur and Kel are alienated from those around them. But things change when Arthur gets a housekeeper and must be around another human being for the first time in ten years. And things change for Kel when his mother gets sick. We wonder, hoping as we read on, if somehow, in some way, this man and this boy can somehow become a part of each other's lives and release the loneliness and isolation they've felt for so long.

It is difficult to give a decent summary of this novel without giving away some key spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. I do want to say that this book was a page-turne for me from the moment I read the first sentence. The author has managed to articulate the voices of both a 58 year old man and a teenage boy, and both feel accurate and so real.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is a psychologically astute observation of these two people and of those around them. It is full of heart and hope. The only reason this wasn't 5 stars was to me was because of the storyline in the last part of the novel, but I don't want to discourage anyone from reading something as good as this.

Recommended.
I was honestly really, really angry when I finished this book. Partly because it is so well-written and the characters are so compelling - so a great deal of credit goes to the author for that. The thing is, this book doesn't feel like a book. It feels like half a book. The end ought to have been the middle of a much longer story. At the very least it should have been the climactic scene before a denouement. A week after finishing, I still feel like I've just reached the middle of a really great book and can't wait to get back to see what happens. Except that there's no more. Which is incredibly frustrating. It was especially frustrating because I was reading it on , and it showed that I was at 96% complete. I thought I had at least another chapter to go. Climactic scene opens, tap the page to turn, and-- giant reader's guide. I went back and forth several times, just to make sure I hadn't somehow skipped over it. But no. That's it.

I'm totally cool with literary stuff that doesn't necessarily follow a typical plot arc, but there were two point-of-view characters in this book, and it was obvious from the get-go that they were both on trajectories to meet and help one another find closure. Except that the book ends literally the moment before they meet. This is probably supposed to be making some sort of statement about how they're now ready to move on or whatever, but... yeah, it totally did not work for me.